Ah yes on to film 5. By this point the Saw films have become The Land Before Time of torture. This movie is probably my fourth favorite, but man, check out that sweet poster. Year after year the marketing for these movies gets better and better. The poster tells you that Jigsaw is dead but someone is carrying on his legacy....or it just creeps you the hell out. This one is under the direction of David Hackl, the art director from parts 2-4. Bousman left the films to work on the AWESOME Repo! The Genetic Opera (I'd like to do a post on that slice of cinematic awesome soon) This one looks like it was shot for a lot less than the first four films, especially the police station. There’s a darkness, nay, murkiness to the way this film was shot that I didn’t really dig. This was the first of the Saw films to not open at number 1. I guess I would describe this movie as competent. There's traps, there's more backstory about Jigsaw and of course there's a TWIIIIIIST. This time the twist involves the trash compactor from Star Wars.
On to the synopsis: Saw V begins with a game in progress. A convict who got off on a technicality (don't they all?) is strapped to a slab with an honest to god pendulum above him. He has two choices, have his hands crushed completely or let the pendulum do its thing. He manages to mangle his hands but the trap doesn't let him go. Looks like another Amanda trap right? Perhaps. Now on to the rest of the movie which actually happens sequential to where part IV left off-- Jigsaw is dead, again, for reals this time. Detective Hoffman has emerged as the, undisputed heir to the Jigsaw ideology of "rehabilitation," or has he? Just like Saw IV all of our players are at Gideon's Meat Processing plant. Straham shows up in time to uncover the bloodbath from Jeff and Amanda's game. He shoots Jeff (poor Robert the Bruce, he's been shot by Straham in TWO films in a row now) and then Hoffman locks him in the freezer. But guess what? There's a secret compartment! That's right, Jigsaw's batcave has an escape hatch apparently. Straham finds another tape from Jigsaw telling him not to continue, if he proceeds he will die. Straham proceeds. Fair warning. Straham wakes up strapped to a chair with a fish tank on his head. As the water begins to fill up the fish-tank- head-trap-thing, Straham is running out of options. So what does he do? FBI agent standard tracheotomy by pen. That's pretty smart thinking from the dude from "Gilmore Girls." Good thing he got it right the first time. Cut to outside with Hoffman emerging as the hero detective and agent Straham being loaded in to an ambulance. Hoffman begins another game at Jigsaw’s request. This one having to do with a real estate deal that went bad. The people who wake up must work together to survi…..zzzzzzzzzz. Sorry this particular game bored me to tears. Straham pursues Detective Hoffman throughout the film as Hoffman sets him up. Straham plays right into the detective’s hands at the end of the film. In what is the most elaborate (and retarded(whoa satire!)) the entire room they are fist-fighting in become the trash compactor from Star Wars. Seriously. The walls close in and squish Agent Straham while Detective Hoffman watches from the safety of a bulletproof, glass filled coffin that is descending below the floor. SERIOUSLY.
Like with part IV it had been a long time since I had seen this Saw movie. I actually really liked all the flashback stuff, particularly the Hoffman Jigsaw scene.
The idea of Jigsaw recruiting people was touched on in the parts 2-4 but to see him (Tobin Bell, never better) pursue his imitator and straighten him out was really cool. The scenes with Hoffman and Jigsaw working together (kidnapping razor-wire guy, setting up the revolver in the house, baiting Detective Tapp) were all really cool. Like I said I enjoy watching the behind the scenes stuff. If there was a trap you liked in one of the older movies, you can bet you’ll see part of it’s creation, or the kidnapping of it’s victim, in the latter films. The notion of vengeance versus a chance is touched upon. Both men have lost family. Jigsaw calls his traps ‘rehabilitation.’ I kinda dug that too. Even the man who miscarried his son, got a chance. Jigsaw begins coaching Hoffman, telling him that the heart should have nothing to do with it. We also find out that Hoffman had been working with Jigsaw SINCE THE FIRST FILM. That was a pretty interesting twist I guess. It never was just John Kramer, and thinking about it, it makes sense, in a 7 film torture opus kind of way, that to do what is done there needs to be more than one person behind the scenes. Also you can see that all of the victims that are chosen are in fact people from Jigsaw’s life. Not people he observed ‘not appreciating their lives’ he already knew these folks. These lessons are at the end of the day REVENGE. You can talk circles around it (Jigsaw does) but at the end of the day he bolted the fellow who killed his son to a chair and told him to cut himself or bleed out….there really was no choice for that poor miscarrying druggie. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve his fate, but I’m saying at the end of the day it was still boring ole homicide. I tend to think of Jigsaw as the protagonist of these films, but he is certainly no hero. Think about it: Everyone who gave him bad news is dead, everyone who pursued him is dead, everyone who bothered his wife is dead, hell he even found a way to drag his lawyer into his games.
What I Like
I like that everyone in this film has a wig, and it looks TERRIBLE.
I like that Tobin Bell owns every single one of his scenes in every film.
I like that Detective Straham talked like Batman throughout the film.
I like Straham’s boss, the most incompetent blue-tooth wearing tool I’ve ever seen.
I like that Jeff dies in this one too, again.
I like that Julie Benz is the pretties person to ‘not appreciate her life’ ever.
I like how the reporter guy looked like Sid Haig and spoke like James Earl Jones.
One more film to go. Until next Halloween…and probably the next one after that.
No comments:
Post a Comment